With senior year on the horizon, the entire class decided that camping was the only way to celebrate their arrival into near adulthood. Tents were purchased, food and drink raids completed, and offers of extra chores were used to bribe skeptical parents. Finding the entire group a place by the pond hadn't been too hard, but as the soon-to-be seniors of South Park High finished pitching their collective tents (Token's being the most elaborate actual tent, while Cartman brought an entire trailer, claiming he was glamping) they all settled into their own forms of unwinding.
Tweek and Stan gathered up their fishing poles, wanting nothing more than to spend some time relaxing by the pond attempting to catch the group's dinner. Cartman, Butters, Token, Kevin, and Kenny found themselves singing along to awful karaoke inside the trailer, the echo of Kenny and Kevin's duet reaching the ears of the group gathered by the fire.
Craig sits firmly next to his cousin, Red, as Scott hands yet another perfectly roasted marshmallow to Bebe, who moans with delight as she pops it in her mouth.
"Scott, how are you so good at this?" she questions, the bashful boy smiling and starting on another for Wendy.
"Just because I can't eat them doesn't mean I didn't learn how to char them perfectly," he jokes, turning the white fluff over the open flame. "It's my pleasure to roast these for you beautiful women," he pauses glancing to Craig and laughing, "and Craig." The entire group joins in, laughter nearly drowning out the tomfoolery going on not too far away from them.
"Are Kyle and Jimmy really going to humor Clyde like that?" Wendy comments, watching the two boys as Clyde lights up another sparkler. "I feel like he's going to burn the entire forest down."
Bebe shrugs one of her shoulders, "Honestly I think Kyle is keeping an eye on him; he kept popping those poppers too close to Tweek and he got really angry."
"Oooh, is that why they went off to fish?" Red asks, pushing her hair up and out of her face, wrapping and twisting her red locks until they're tucked into an artfully messy bun. "I was wondering why Stan looked so aggravated."
"Mmm, neither of them like loud noises much," Craig muses while reaching for the bag of uncooked marshmallows, "Tweek prefers quiet."
Quiet is not the focus of their little campground, music suddenly blaring out of the trailer as Heidi throws the door open. She's hanging on the door with a microphone in her hand, belting the lyrics to Uptown Girl with Kenny as her back up.
Craig's eyes find Kenny easily, and his heart does that annoying flutter in his chest when he hears the blond hit a high note, throwing his head back dramatically. He forces himself to look away, but his cousin has that little smirk tugging at her lips. Craig knows that look far too well.
"What?"
"You know what." She drawls out, delicate eyebrows waggling up and down. "You gonna tell him or are we going to have another full year of our adolescence suffering through you pinning over..." she drops her voice to a whisper as she leans closer to him, "...Kenny McCormick?"
Craig decides the best course of action is to stuff a fistful of marshmallows into his mouth, his cheeks puffing out as he shrugs his shoulders.
Red rolls her eyes at his antics, scoffing, "You can't avoid the question forever."
"S're I 'an," Craig attempts to respond around the ridiculous amount of sugary fluff in his mouth, causing the nearby girls to wither in disgust.
"Craig, buddy, I don't believe that's how you eat those," Scott offers, handing another marshmallow off, this time to Red. "Unless you're playing Fluffy Bunny?"
Wendy perks up at that, clapping her hands together. "Oh! That game is hilarious! Craig, try doing it!"
Instantly regretting his life decisions, Craig deadpans at the girls all encouraging him to try. "'Uffee bu'y, 'uffee bu'y," He repeats, or tries too, spitting some chewed marshmallow onto the dirt and pulling a obnoxiously loud laugh from Bebe who covers her mouth immediately at the sound. Her face turns the same shade of the twisting fire, scarlet blooming across her features.
Wendy snorts, patting her friend's shoulder as her lips pull into a grin. "We all know you have a crazy laugh, Bey. It's okay to let it out, Craig looks redonkulous."
"Hey wait, isn't it called 'chubby bunny'?" Red wonders, looking at her phone.
Bebe, who has finally gathered herself, smiles and reaches to poke Craig in his extended cheeks. "I think that would be a disservice to Craig, as he is less chubby and more fluffy." She giggles as Craig tries, and fails, to frown through his chipmunk cheeks.
"Are you kidding?" Red scoots forward, rolling her eyes and grabbing a marshmallow from the bag in Craig's hands. "The only thing fluffy on this asshole is the puff ball on his hat. He's a damn noodle."
"I'd say less noodle, more tree," Bebe taps at her chin with a perfectly manicured nail.
Red scoffs at her friend, picking up Craig's arm and wiggling it around. "You kidding me, Bey? He's a noodle. There's nothing going on here."
Craig snatches his arm back, finally having swallowed down the mess of sugar in his mouth. "Fuck you, too, Red."
"I wouldn't say there's nothing going on there," Scott spears another marshmallow, "And some people like trees."
Both Wendy and Bebe raise their hands and giggle at the face Red pulls in disgust. "Ew."
"I'm literally right here," Craig interjects and is promptly ignored.
"Whaaaat, it's nice when a guy is tall," Bebe shrugs a shoulder, blond curls bouncing with the movement. "No shame in that game."
"Just because you're my gross cousin doesn't mean that someone wouldn't want to date a tree-person like you," Red jabs her finger into Craig's bicep, a pesky move she's done since they were little. "And I hear Kenny's real good at climbing."
Craig blames the fire for how heated his cheeks feel, tugging down on one of his hat tassels when the others gathered around the fire burst into giggles at his face turning what is undoubtedly an undiscovered shade of red.
"A regular lumberjack," Bebe snickers and drags out 'lumber', flashing her pretty smile at the already flushed noirette.
The group devolves into laughter once more before Heidi comes barreling towards them, clearly out of breath, and squeezes between Scott and Bebe. "Hey losers, what's the haps?" she smiles, reaching for the newest crispy marshmallow and eyeing it briefly, "Marshmallows are terrible for you, yanno? It's all animal fat." There's a pause before she lifts it to Wendy's mouth, "Aaaaa," she coos as the other girl opens her lips to receive the treat.
"You'd know all about animal fat, wouldn't you Heids?" Red snips, her perfectly plucked eyebrows narrowed only briefly.
Heidi allows the comment to roll off of her as if nothing happened, pressing the puff into Wendy's awaiting mouth before smiling deviously in the redhead's direction. "Was that some sort of pot shot at Eric? Because, babe, if you're going to come for me, you're going to need more than fat jokes." She winks before turning from the now fuming girl to Craig, "Hey, why aren't you in there?" She whispers over the crackle of the fire, "I thought this trip was your chance?"
"I said maybe," Craig mumbles back, pulling his hat off his head to run his fingers through his hair. "And it's not...the timing isn't right. It's fine. It's just a stupid crush, I'll get over it."
Red drops her glare at Heidi, instead turning to her cousin. "Really? Because that sounds suspiciously like what you said last month. And at Christmas. And the year before that. And the year before that, aaaand-"
"Shut up," he says without any heat, twisting the hat in his hands, "doesn't make it any less true."
Heidi's eyes soften before she hauls off and punches Craig in the shoulder, "Grow a pair, Tucker!" she stage whispers at him. "You can't keep doing this to yourself! Rip that damn bandaid off before it's too late," she pauses, biting her bottom lip and glancing toward the music in the trailer. "I did, remember? And even though he turned me down, we're better friends for it. So, what's the worst that can happen, huh?" The brunette offers him a bitter sweet smile before standing up and dusting off her pants, "Do it, before he's gone." And with a small wave to the quiet group, she leaves to go join Clyde and the others with the sparklers.
"She's so brave," Bebe whispers, glancing at Wendy as the other girl nods. "I remember when she asked him out; he was so nice, but she cried for a week."
"She did," Craig watches Heidi light a sparkler off Clyde's, giggling at the boy jumping back when it starts to spark. He thought Heidi would never laugh again after that, the girl he'd grown to know over the years unable to hide her bloodshot eyes and fake smile. It took time, late night phone calls, and 3am sorbet runs, but Heidi didn't so much emerge from her heartache as kick its teeth in and break down the door. She was vibrant, and things between her and Kenny were better than they'd ever been.
Craig wants that. He wants to be able to exist in Kenny's orbit without his chest feeling like it's collapsing, without second-guessing every word that leaves his lips.
But more than that, he wants Kenny. At least this way, he'll never get a flat out rejection. Schrödinger's crush.
"You think too loud," Red knocks him out of his daze with her words, tossing a marshmallow at his head. "Just talk to him."
The music flowing from the trailer swells louder and louder as Cartman pumps the volume. It's getting harder to ignore the melodic voice floating through the air and Craig feels the pull of the siren song. He turns his head just as Kenny dramatically hits his knees in the doorway, belting the chorus of the song and Craig can feel that all encompassing sense of being crushed again, his chest squeezing with each motion the blond punishes him with.
"I wanna know what love is, I want you to show meeeee!" The rest of the camp's attention snaps to Kenny as he jumps back to his feet and leaves the trailer. He grips the microphone in his hand and throws his head back to the night sky, bellowing, "I want to feel what love is, I know you can show meeee!"
Kyle laughs to Craig's right, soon joined by Heidi as they hand off their sparklers to the unimpressed Clyde. Who wants to play with fire when Kenny shines brighter than any sparkler. Craig doesn't blame them. He can't look away either.
"Wooohoo!" Bebe cheers, rocketing to her feet and clapping as Kenny wiggles his eyebrows and winks in the direction of the fire pit. Craig wishes that look, those words he's singing, were directed at him, but he knows a showman when he sees one, and Kenny is the ringleader of this circus. His performance is for all, not one.
The words 'I want to feel what love is' echo in his mind as the others start to stand as well, watching Kenny as he wraps the song up, and Craig wishes he could be the one to show the blond, show him the depths of pain he's inflicted on him by simply existing.
"No Kinny, I didn't say you could sleep in my camper."
The words ring out among the remaining group members as they fan out to their respective sleeping situations. Only a handful of them are still awake, their number shrinking as people wandered off to bed until five were left sitting around the campfire telling stories.
Tweek frowns in Cartman's direction when Kenny attempts to convince him otherwise. "T-that doesn't seem very nice, Cartman."
"Yeah, come on Eric. You know I didn't bring a tent," Kenny pleads, but Cartman merely shrugs his shoulder and flips off Tweek then Kenny respectively.
"Ay, it ain't my problem that Kinny's family is too poor to afford to buy him a tent. Screw you guys, I'm goin' to bed." With three sets of eyes narrowed in his direction, Cartman glances towards Heidi, who seems to be the only one of them smiling, and winks.
As he leaves, Heidi elbows Craig with an coy smile on her lips, "Don't you have room in your tent? Isn't it just you and Clyde?"
Craig nearly snaps his neck with how quickly he turns to look at her.
The fact is, he does have room. Their tent could fit at least three more people, but due to his and Clyde's hellish snoring that could literally wake the dead (as Kyle had so eloquently put it the last time they went camping), they'd been exiled to their own tent at the edge of the site to scare off anything that lurked nearby.
As much as Craig wants to say that Kenny can join them, maybe even curl up in his extra large sleeping bag, that's exactly the problem. What if he does or says something stupid or makes him uncomfortable or an endless list of things that would definitely fuck up any chance he might have with Kenny.
"Yeah, Tucker, you've got plenty of room for one more," Red drawls from his side, earning herself an elbow in her ribs from Craig. "Don't want to leave your friend out in the cold, huh?" she continues, completely undeterred by her cousin's expression or bony elbow.
Well, fuck.
"We've got room," Craig says before he loses his nerve.
Tweek narrows his eyes at the others suspiciously, realization seeming to dawn on him after Cartman and Heidi's weird winking back-and-forth and Red's suggestion. His gaze meets Craig's across the small circle, and the taller boy hopes and fucking prays that Tweek will recognize the look of panic on his face throw him a bone and help him out of the mess he's likely putting himself in. "I'm gonna go to bed myself then, since, ngh, everything is figured out." He offers a smile to the rest of the group before shooting his own shaky wink at Craig and heading off to Kyle and Stan's tent where he, Kevin, and Jimmy had been set up. The dirty betrayer.
Kenny looks like he's seen a ghost for the briefest of moments, watching Tweek leave before darting his eyes back to Craig, then back to Tweek, and once more back to Craig. His eyes are so wide it gives him the appearance of an owl; that is, before Heidi clears her throat and shoves his shoulder. "Look, you have a place to sleep. Wasn't that nice of Craig to offer?"
The blond is knocked out of his apparent momentary loss of sanity by the movement, a smile sliding calmly back over his lips. "Yeah, that's real nice of you Craig. Thank you." He stands, dusting off his pants before shuffling his shoes a bit in the dirt. "I don't have a sleeping bag, you don't happen to have a spare do you?" The blond looks sheepish, and Craig could have sworn his freckled cheeks looked dusted with a faint shade of red, but that could be his imagination, or the heat from the fire.
Or wishful thinking. Probably definitely wishful thinking.
"I don't, but uh," Craig stares at the old chullo in his hands, "I've got a really big one. Sleeping bag, I mean."
Kenny stares at the taller boy, one eyebrow narrowed and the other so far up it looks as if he's attempting to be Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson.
Heidi rolls her eyes, elbowing Kenny hard in the side to get him to speak, "That should be fine right, Kenny?"
"Oh, yeah," he mutters, looking up at the stars with a laugh that sounds a little off.
Ah, great. He's already gone and fucked it up.
"You can take it, too. If you want. I don't mind sleeping without one." Pulling his hat back over his hair, Craig chances a glance at the other boy. "It's not a big deal."
"What? Hey, no. I'm not going to take it from you. I can sleep without one," Kenny frowns, his hands moving as he talks. It's clear something is different and if Craig wasn't imagining it, he seems almost...nervous.
Heidi taps her fingers on Kenny's shoulder with a smile that was anything but sweet, "You two can share. Like good friends do, right?" The look on Kenny's face seems like a mix of shock and something else that Craig can't pinpoint.
"Yeah, yeah we can, yeah. Sharing. Yeah," the blond spits out, shrugging a shoulder and clearly feigning nonchalance.
"Okay," Craig pointedly tries not to think about exactly what this means. Maybe he can take a page out of Tweek's book and just straight up not sleep. Not that he would be able to anyway with Kenny next to him like that, sharing not only his sleeping bag, but his space and his warmth.
When Craig finally brings his attention back to the campsite and away from his thoughts of Kenny curled up next to him, just he and the blond are left, Heidi retreating to her tent with a salute and a cocky "Goodnight, boys!"
Kenny shuffles his converse again, his eyes darting around the campsite before he's got his hands shoved deep into his pockets and moving toward Craig. "Soooo... wanna go lay down?" he asks, smiling softly.
"We can, yeah," he shrugs a shoulder, ass still firmly planted on the log they were using as a bench around the fire. Get up, Tucker, this isn't the end of the world. "If you're tired, I mean."
Kenny makes a few weird motions that look like aborted dance moves or perhaps like they belong in some awkward tap dance. He laughs, which sounds like beautiful music to Craig's ears, eyes glowing in the dying embers of the fire.
"We should take care of the fire first," Kenny starts, walking over to the bucket full of water and dumping it over the flames. It's such a swift motion that it takes Craig a moment to realize they're now bathed in darkness as the embers fade. As starlight twinkles above them, Kenny hisses under his breath, realizing too late that he's taken away their only means of light. He fumbles with his phone and nearly blinds himself with the flashlight app as he twists said phone. "Oh shit, fuck," he grumbles, blinking against the light.
Squinting when the bright light swings and briefly sears his retinas, Craig stands and reaches out to try to steady Kenny's arm, clamping a hand over the flashlight so they have a momentary reprieve from the tiny, yet powerful, light. He realizes belatedly that their fingers are slotted together over Kenny's phone case, and Craig's silently thanks the darkness surrounding them because his face is burning like he opened a damn oven. "You...you okay?"
The silence that follows his words is unsettling. Kenny isn't saying anything and he can feel the blond's fingers tighten around the phone case. It takes a few long and terrible moments before Kenny's laugh pulls out of him as if it was forced, "Aha, yeah. Yeah, I'm just fine. I can't believe I did that." He sounds shaky, his voice cracking at the end of his admission.
He hasn't tried to move away, his hand still clasped in Craig's, steadying him as if his hand is a lifeline in the inky darkness. "Sorry, give me a second to... to adjust my eyes to the dark."
"Of course," Craig's voice sounds quiet to his own ears, as though whatever this thing passing between them would snap and break if he raised his voice. Kenny's fingers are warm against his skin, and as the seconds tick by and his vision adjusts to the lack of light, Craig has to look up at the sky instead of the boy at his side.
Craig is caught off guard when Kenny shifts next to him, his fingers moving from the phone case to slide over Craig's. He's turned away from him and starts tugging the taller boy toward the tent. "Watch your step," Kenny mumbles, stepping over the uneven ground. "Wouldn't want either of us to trip," he jokes, turning his face to offer the noirette a sweet smile, eyes twinkling under the vast sky above.
He stops then, eyes meeting Craig's in the darkness. There's that silence again, a weird tension between them.
"That'd be unfortunate," Craig mutters, a little voice in his brain echoing a mocking Too bad you've already fallen pretty hard.
He shakes away the unease settling in his stomach, the nervousness pulsing through his veins, and focuses on something that won't have his heart hammering in his chest. "The Milky Way is really visible tonight."
"Huh?" Kenny seemed worlds away, his eyes looking from Craig's to the heavens above them. "Oh. Yeah, it is," he answers, eyebrows knitting as his fingers let go of Craig's to turn his phone light off so the both of them could appreciate the stars without light pollution. Craig feels the loss of his hand but pushes that down deep and tries to focus on the beauty above instead of the ethereal boy next to him.
"Hey, uh. Tell me about the stars a bit?" the blond says suddenly, shaking Craig out of his own thoughts. "I only know a little about them..." Kenny admits, sounding sheepish.
Craig watches him carefully, swallowing down a lump in his throat. They're friends, they've been friends since they were little kids, and as much as this infatuation with Kenny has grown exponentially throughout high school, they've been able to talk and hang out without Craig being a complete basket case. With the exception of right the fuck now.
"What did you want to know?"
"What are the most visible constellations right now?" Kenny asks, his hands clasped behind his back as he watches Craig.
"Uhm," Craig stammers out as Kenny turns his eyes to the sky, taking a moment to collect himself. "Do you see that one? The one that sort of looks like a cross?" he points to the set of stars, tracing the shape with his finger. "It's Cygnus. It marks where the Milky Way is."
Kenny takes a few steps to close the distance between them, joining Craig in looking upwards toward the sky from the same angle.
"Yeah, I see it. This one?" he raises his hand and attempts to map out the stars Craig is pointing out with the length of his fingers, smiling toward the taller boy. "It's crazy how much you know about the stars. Not a lot of people really take the time to learn about that kinda stuff." Kenny drops his arm, gaze dropping from the stars and Craig. "It's cool, I mean. That you do."
Ignoring the flush on his cheeks, Craig kicks at a rock under his shoe, focusing back on the night sky. "It's always been something I really liked. Like no matter how much time goes by, there are these bright stars burning so far away we could never really get to them, and we're looking at light that's millions of years old."
He closes his eyes for a moment, enjoying the crisp air cooling his cheeks, "And the constellations are ancient. So it's like we're surrounded constantly by all this history. It's sort of lonely, but also not because the past is still here with us now. So, I dunno, maybe we can do something that'll make that much of a difference and carry on into the future."
The two of them stand together under the glowing sky, Craig's words hanging in the silence between them. Kenny shifts a few times; it appears as if he wants to say something, but he closes his mouth and turns toward the tent instead.
"That's really..." he trails off, quiet once again and not finishing his sentence until Craig is forced to follow the other boy toward the tent. When they reach the opening, Kenny starts unzipping the front door area and speaks up again.
"My friends, they're good guys," he starts and Craig can't help but see a little twitch at the corner of Kenny's lips, a frown attempting to form but a smile taking its place. "They, well, they just don't understand people sometimes. You know? And sometimes," the boy licks his lips and Craig feels his stomach flip, trying to pry his eyes away and failing as he watches Kenny's tongue disappear as quickly as it arrived.
"Sometimes, when they find something they don't understand, they tend to make fun of it. I think, it's brave. It's brave and it's really cool that no matter what, no matter what people said to and about you, that you've always just been..." the words linger again, but Kenny stands back up and meets Craig's eyes. "You."
Craig isn't sure when exactly his heart started pounding in his ears, but he's sure Kenny can hear it. He doesn't know what to say, an infinite number of thoughts racing to reach his tongue, none of them enough to express the wave of emotions that wash over him.
"I..." he starts, unsure what he could possibly say even as the single syllable leaves his lips. Craig holds Kenny's eyes, the sincerity of the other's words reflected back at him.
"Thank you."
"It's the truth." Kenny laughs softly as he rocks from toe to heel, eyes turning from the heavens to the taller boy. His lips quirk at the way Craig seems bashful in the moment before he thumbs toward the tent.
"Enough of this bonding bullshit, if we aren't careful we'll end up the first fifteen minutes of a Supernatural episode."
"Yeah," Craig hears himself say as Kenny turns to enter the tent, the delicate bubble of their exchange not quite broken.
He should do it now. Kenny isn't more than 3 steps from him, and all it would take is Craig opening his mouth and saying those little words that have been eating away at him for way too long. The worst that would happen is rejection, and as much as that would shatter the fragile part of himself that Craig diligently tries to hide from everyone, Kenny isn't cruel and he knows they could still be friends. And he's not sure if that makes the ache in his chest worse or not.
"H-hey, Kenny...hold on a second.."
Kenny turns, his blue eyes focused solely on Craig. His lips part slightly as he knits his eyebrows, "Yeah?"
Craig mentally kicks himself when he has to open and close his mouth twice before any sound comes out. Get it together, Tucker.
"I, uh..." he fiddles with one of the tassels on his chullo, self-consciously dropping his hand once he realizes what he's doing. "We're friends, right?"
The blond quirks his eyebrow as a laugh flits out of his lips. "Yeah dude, we're friends." Kenny's head tilts in confusion, "why what's up?"
A gust of wind rustles Kenny's hair, sandy blond locks dancing across his forehead, and Craig drags in a long breath in an attempt to steel himself. "We're about to be seniors. Things are...they're changing, and I don't want to..." Craig swallows hard and tucks his hands in his pockets so he stops fidgeting. "I want to make sure we don't lose this. Even if things change."
"This?" Kenny questions, his hand coming up to move some of the hair the wind pushed into his face. "Why wouldn't we still be friends?" The blond seems puzzled, his eyes searching Craig's stance and expression for a deeper meaning. "Are you planning on ditching South Park all together or something?" There's something strange in his tone, it almost sounds like behind his joking mannerisms that Kenny seems worried.
"Wait, no...no, I mean, at some point, like after graduation or something, but..." Craig replies in a rush, guilt crawling up his spine at the look Kenny is giving him. "But not now. I've...there's too much I'd miss here."
The shorter of them smiles, seeming content with that answer. It's a second more before Kenny hauls off and socks Craig in the shoulder with a laugh. "Don't spook a guy like that, Tucker!"
Despite the sharp pain fading to an ache in his shoulder, Craig shoots Kenny a smirk. "Ow," his practiced deadpan brings another chuckle out of the smaller boy, and even with his arm throbbing, Craig can't stop smiling like an idiot. "How did that spook you?"
"You know, the idea of you leaving and shit." Kenny waves his hand and unzips the tent, he stands half in and half out, his fingers playing with the fabric. "I don't think I'll ever get out of this town so...I mean, in the end, you will. But, I don't want it to be now?"
Craig freezes, something clenching tight in his chest. Because that's wrong, because Kenny deserves to get out of this fucking shithole more than anyone. "Why not?"
He's almost afraid Kenny doesn't hear him, but the blond straightens from his place at the mouth of the tent, a frown tugging at his lips. "Why? We're friends, dude, of course I don't want-"
"No," he still can't move to step closer to Kenny and get that hurt expression off his face, "no, why couldn't you leave too?"
Kenny's eyes looked unfocused, his eyebrows knitting and unknotting in a way that signals he's thinking hard. His teeth knead at his bottom lip and Craig knows him well enough to see that he's trying to formulate his response.
"I feel like I'm an outside dog," he starts, a small smile on his lips, "and South Parks my chain." He turns to face Craig fully, stepping out of the tent and toeing the dirt with his shoe. "I get to have the taste of freedom, the fresh air, the crisp dirt, hell, I can even see the horizon but.." his eyes fall downcast, "I'm chained down. It's false hope."
Craig's resolve strengthens with the fists tightening in his pockets. "Then I guess we're gonna need to get out those bolt cutters from last year."
"The ones we used to break into the public pool with?" Kenny's voice sounds quiet, appearing to understand the meaning behind Craig's words loud and clear.
"Yup," his lips quirk into a smile, heart rate gathering speed in his chest, "they work really well on chains."
Kenny rolls his eyes, shoving Craig's shoulder hard enough to push him backwards a few steps. "You're an absolute dork."
"I know," Craig takes another step back, energy thrumming under his skin at the brief contact. "But I mean it, y'know."
"Why?" Kenny states, turning to face Craig fully, his eyebrows knitted. "Why would you even care? I mean, sure, we're friends. But dude, once you leave for college you'll forget me and this stupid town. So," the blond frowns as he looks down at his hands, rubbing his wrists as if the invisible chains were already there. "Why even bother?"
Craig's heart leaps into his throat, nearly suffocating his words with its insistent beat of do it do it do it.
"I..." he manages to find his voice somehow, nails biting into the palm of his hand, "how could I forget this? All the insane shit that's happened over the years, getting held hostage on field trips and ending up in the jungle in Peru? When we nearly blew up the science lab freshman year, breaking into the pool at 2am. How..." Craig takes a deep breath, letting it escape slowly between his lips. "How could I ever forget any of this, especially you."
Kenny stares him directly in the eyes for a few beats before he shrugs his shoulders. "People do." The blond turns away and kneels down to untie his shoes. "People grow apart. It isn't like friends stay friends forever." There's a sadness to his tone even though his lips are tugged into a smile. "But don't you fret your pretty little head, Tucker," Kenny chimes as he jumps back up holding his shoes, "I remember everyone."
Craig watches Kenny's worn laces twist and sway in the breeze. "That's...I mean," he finally raises his eyes to meet the blue pair across from him, "I don't want to grow apart, I want you to come with me. I'm never going to forget you because I like you."
There's nothing but silence and Craig's heart stutters in his chest, he wants to say something else, maybe even find a rock to hide under. Kenny hasn't said a word, staring at the other boy, making him squirm.
Was he waiting for him to take it back? Maybe to clarify? Craig isn't sure, but the way Kenny is looking at him makes him feel like the blond can read his mind.
"You want me to go with you? You like me?" Kenny repeats, parroting Craig's words in confusion. The blond looks around then, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop or for someone to jump out and scream surprise as if it were some elaborate hoax.
The wind jostles Kenny's hair as it picks up, Craig's chullo tassels mirroring the movement. "Don't sound so skeptical," Craig mutters quietly, his cheeks burning bright under the stars.
Kenny's eyebrows narrow before he finally speaks again. "For how long?"
Since Kenny had leaned over to him on their end of the year class camping trip when they were 14, blue eyes vibrant with wonder as he asked about the stars overhead even after everyone told Craig to shut up an hour earlier. Since he let Craig map out the stars in the freckles spanning Kenny's arm, small giggles pouring out of chapped lips each time Craig's pen hit a ticklish spot.
Despite the burn in his cheeks and the waves of embarrassment washing over him, a laugh slips from Craig's lips and he's half convinced it's some fucked up defense mechanism. "A while," he replies, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. "Since maybe eighth grade."
'Eighth grade' Kenny mouths, eyes darting along the ground as if he's thinking about something furiously. His eyes close for a moment before he's scrubbing his face with the heel of his palm, his shoes dangling from his other hand. When he pulls his hand away, his cheeks are bright red and his eyes are glazed over, tears dangerously close to spilling.
"You fucking idiot," Kenny grounds out, shaking his head and swinging his shoes at Craig. "You. Fucking. IDIOT! EIGHTH GRADE, CRAIG!?" he shouts and Craig is worried both for himself, dodging the shoes, and that the others may wake up.
Evading a particularly hard swing, Craig catches Kenny's other wrist in his hand before he can try to do more damage, "I'm sorry, okay? I know I should have said something sooner," Kenny's second shoe clips his hip, a quiet 'ow, dude' leaving Craig before he continues. "Look, I...I get it if this is weird and if this changes things," he says in a rush, hearing movement in the nearby tents, "and I'm sorry."
"You're sorry?" Kenny mutters, pulling at the hand Craig has around his wrist, his eyes narrowed. The tears in his eyes appear dangerously close to falling. "It damn well better change things Tucker, I've been waiting for you to fucking say something. I didn't want to be wrong! Heidi said, fuck, even Red said." Kenny stops dead in his tracks and tries to swing his shoe at Craig again, the noirette grabbing the other wrist.
"You stupid boy, I swear to God! Why do you think I spend so much time with you? I've been flirting with your dumb giraffe ass for yearsand I just thought, 'Oh man Kenny, he must not be into you!'" Kenny's voice goes up a pitch at the end of his sentence and Craig is stunned into silence as the shorter boy rambles. "I thought, man, I have no chance. I should just stop, cause there is NO WAY he's just this dense. But Buttercup said you're oblivious and Tweek pleaded with me to just say somethingbut I didn't want to lose your friendship!"
Kenny's words hit him like he collided with a brick wall. He heartbeat is deafening in his ears, confusion and worry creasing his brow because he definitely didn't hear that right. There's no way that this upsettingly beautiful boy in front of him felt anything remotely close to what he did for Kenny.
But Red. And Heidi. And Tweek...
"I...wait, you...?" Craig breathes out, inwardly raging at himself for not being able to string together a goddamn coherent sentence. "I didn't know...I was afraid of the same thing, and..."
He just gapes at Craig, blue eyes that the taller boy has pined after for years wide with frustration that gradually fades as they watch each other. "Wow, we are both so incredibly stupid," Kenny laughs out and once the laughter bubbles out the first time, he can't stop. He presses his forehead to Craig's collarbone and just laughs, his entire body shaking with the force of it. Craig holds onto the thin wrists in his hands, waiting for Kenny to calm down or his mind to stop racing, whichever comes first.
"We deserve each other," Kenny muses so low Craig thinks he might have imagined him saying it altogether. The noirette's breath leaves his lungs when Kenny looks up, close to his chest, eyes dancing in the moonlight.
He swallows hard, grip turning gentle against Kenny's wrists and just watches the way the other's hair flutters in the wind, how his eyes are so crystal blue up close. Craig wants to connect the freckles scattered across the bridge of the blond's nose and up over his cheeks like he did with Kenny's arm years ago, and his own cheeks burn brighter at the realization of how close they are.
"We're fucking idiots, aren't we?" Craig's own laugh slips past his lips, licking them unconsciously when his eyes drop to Kenny's for a second.
The shorter boy nods, teeth pressing against the meat of his bottom lip. "I can't believe you didn't know? I just, I had given up hope. You never seemed interested."
"You flirt with anything that moves, McCormick," Craig's fingers slide up Kenny's arms to his biceps, the laugh returning with his words, "I wanted it to be real, but I was never sure."
"Pffft, shut the hell up," Kenny grumbles, hitting his fist against Craig's chest softly. "But I get it, I just wish you'd said something?" The blond glances back up at the taller boy, his eyebrow quirked before he grins. "Is this real enough for you?" And before Craig can understand what's happening, the softness of Kenny's lips are pressed against his.
He's thought about it, this exact moment, for years; he's wondered how it would happen, what Kenny would feel like against his lips. Everything about this puts all of Craig's daydreams to shame.
It's gentle, and Craig is almost ashamed that it takes him a second or five to actively join in the kiss, but he'll forgive himself just this once because Kenny McCormick is kissing him. They part just enough to breathe, Kenny's finger's twisting in Craig's shirt and the look on his face bringing a new wave of heat to the taller boy's cheeks.
Hands dropping to the blond's waist, Craig dips his head to seal their lips again, catching Kenny's faint laugh in his mouth. Kenny tastes like strawberry chapstick and hot dogs, and it's perfect.
"Oh man, it's about time," a voice calls out from behind them, Kenny pulling away to look at the person.
The blond's cheeks go scarlet as his eyes meet the person, Craig turning to face their sudden audience. Not person, people. A cluster of their friends hover by the edge of the fire pit, most likely awakened from Kenny's screaming earlier.
The camper door is open and Heidi and Cartman are joined by Tweek and the rest of his tent, and even if their eyes are tired and Kyle's resting bitch face is strong enough to kill a man, they're all smiling.
"I swear to God, I've been telling both of them to do this ages ago," Tweek laughs, walking over to sock Craig on the shoulder. "I'm p-proud of you both!"
"Thanks, man," wincing at the punch to his shoulder, Craig taps his shoe against Tweek's in fear that letting go of Kenny will somehow negate this entire experience.
Turning to finally see the full scale of the group that gathered, the taller boy reminds himself to give Kenny a special thank you for waking up literally everyone.
"Oh my God," Craig mutters against Kenny's hair, his mortification level going through the roof, especially when Cartman shoots them a few choice hand gestures and follows them up with 'Top him good, Kinny! I didn't raise a pussy!'
The laughter bubbling out of Kenny catches Craig's attention again, the smaller boy smiling brightly up at him. His teeth flash and Craig's heart skips a beat.
Right before Kenny can say the words his mouth opens to say, Clyde peeks his head out of the tent with a frown. "No one is toppin' anyone while I'm in here! I had to keep my mouth shut the entire time these idiots danced around each other and all I want is some sleep!"
"Oh shut it, Donovan, you could sleep through anything," Heidi calls flippantly from Cartman's side, earning herself a smirk and peck on the cheek from the larger boy.
"UM, I beg to differ!" Clyde attempts to drag himself upright before flopping back into his tent. "Kenny yelling woke me up."
Red kicks the corner of Clyde's tent, rolling her eyes when he yelps in protest. "You snored so loud you woke yourself up. And for your information, Cartman," she turns to him across the group, "Craig is a switch."
"Oh my fucking God," Craig looks up at the sky, silently praying that the universe or whichever deity that would listen would send his so-called friends back to sleep and let him enjoy this moment with-
A flick to his cheek brings his his attention back to Kenny as their friends shout bets at each other in their little clearing. Meeting the blond's eyes, Craig pulls his bottom lip into his mouth with a lopsided smile. "Hey."
"Hey," Kenny answers back, his fingers tightening on the fabric of his shirt. "Ignore them and give me another kiss 'cause yah better get used to that background noise, Tucker. They all come with the package deal."
"Half of that noise is mine, so maybe we'll just invest in earplugs," Craig murmurs into the space between them, bringing his hand up to brush some hair back behind the blond's ear. He presses his lips to Kenny's, feeling them curve into a smile against his own, and completely ignores the raucous combination of cheers and groans that erupt around them. And if he flips them off in the process, he's sure Kenny won't mind.